Political attacks in Kirkuk leave two dead

Masked gunmen killed two people in separate attacks today on election headquarters and a Kurdish political party office in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

The first attack happened at about 7am local time on the offices of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, or IECI, in southern Kirkuk, said police Captain Farhad al-Talabani.

Four gunmen strolled into the offices and fired randomly at employees, killing one official and wounding another.

About one mile away, just 30 minutes later, four gunmen fired on the headquarters of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, killing one person and wounding two others, said police Captain Ahmed Hamawandi.

Two of the gunmen fired from a stationary car while two others got out of the vehicle and shot at party employees as they entered their offices at the start of the working day, Hamawandi said.

“Police suspect that the first attack on the IECI headquarters and the second attack on the party headquarters might have been conducted by the same group of gunmen,” al-Talabani said.

Also in Kirkuk, a roadside bomb exploded this morning by a police patrol, wounding two policemen in the Qassab Khan area of eastern Kirkuk, Hamawandi said.